Riopelle Symphonique takes a multimedia odyssey through the life and art of iconic Quebec artist
Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and Vancouver Bach Choir bring the work of Jean Paul Riopelle to musical life
Images from Jean Paul Riopelle’s Sans Titre (1950), detail, on screen, during the Quebec premiere of Riopelle Symphonique. Photo by Victor Diaz Lamich
Vancouver Symphony Orchestra joins forces with the Vancouver Bach Choir to perform Riopelle Symphonique, presented by the Audain Foundation at the Orpheum on April 20
FROM THE AWE-INSPIRING extravagance of Cirque du Soleil to the exuberant chest-thumps of power-ballad queen Celine Dion, Canada’s “belle province” certainly delivers when it comes to spectacle. And come next Saturday, Vancouver’s Orpheum will overflow with as much French Canadiana as a poutine from Chez Gaston when it hosts the Western Canadian premiere of the Montreal-born Riopelle Symphonique, featuring the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and Vancouver Bach Choir under the baton of guest conductor Adam Johnson.
Billed as a “stunning multimedia odyssey”, the soaring work is a 100th-anniversary celebration of acclaimed Montreal-born abstract painter and artist Jean Paul Riopelle, presented by the Audain Foundation. Part choral work, part symphony, part art installation, part documentary, and even part fashion show, it’s an ambitious project that, says the Montreal-based Johnson, is “an amazing piece of music and an incredible journey.”
Originally conceived and produced by GSI Musique, in partnership with the Riopelle Foundation, Riopelle Symphonique burst onto stages in Montreal and Quebec City last year to effusive critical reception. To pull it together, Nicolas Lemieux, GSI Musique’s artistic director and CEO, tapped into the catalogue of songwriter (and former frontman for Quebec prog-rock band Harmonium) Serge Fiori, and commissioned Montreal classical composer Blair Thomson to integrate the songs into a 75-minute work for full symphony orchestra and choir. But wait, there’s more!
In close consultation with Riopelle’s daughter, Yseult Riopelle, a selection of images of Riopelle’s artwork was compiled, along with snippets of the artist’s voice in between the piece’s five movements.
“To combine these huge musical forces with images that will be projected onto screens above the orchestra, where the audience will get to experience both the paintings and the sculptures that Riopelle did during these different phases of his life—it’s a very powerful experience for the audience,” says Johnson, who has been involved with the project since its inception. “It’s also powerful for me, as the conductor, to be the link in between all these different artforms, between the voices and the instruments and the visuals.”
Johnson insists the production is “designed to be accessible for everyone. One of the things that I think is fantastic about this project is that the music has some elements that are very contemporary. Each song from Serge Fiori is a very accessible type of beautiful pop song…but Blair, the way that he started each movement, he takes fragments of the songs and reworks them, and reorders them, and sort of decomposes them first, and then, gradually, kind of puts it all together. So that then, the song becomes recognizable towards the end of the movement.
“People who are interested in pop music love the show because it definitely has some very accessible elements and very tuneful, very consonant, beautiful music,” he continues. “But people who are also interested in a more avant-garde type of art, they also love this show because it has elements of that. And I think it introduces audiences who are maybe only used to the pop side to a different kind of art music…and vice versa.”
Conductor Adam Johnson. Photo by Albert Zablit
Johnson adds that the orchestra will also be mirroring the artist’s creative journey, reflecting what audiences will see on screen. “When he’s doing more sculpture during a certain decade, when it’s all metal, the percussion instruments in the orchestra are only metal percussion instruments,” he explains. “And then in another movement, when he is up in the north—he liked to collect rocks. And so in the percussion instruments, we actually use actual rocks to create these sounds. So whether someone is not familiar with Riopelle’s artwork at all, or is very familiar with it, it adds a texture.”
To add even more flourish, Johnson will eschew the traditional black tux for a special piece by celebrated Montreal designer and close friend of Riopelle, Marie Saint Pierre. “I’ll be wearing a white jacket that has feathers in the back, because of the link between Riopelle and his love for geese,” he shares. “So, there’s the imagery of the birds up north and [it serves as] symbolism for the arc of his life’s journey.”
While Riopelle is a household name in Quebec, the artist—who was born in 1923 in Montreal and moved to Paris in the late 1940s, before settling permanently in Quebec in the 1990s—is less well-known in western Canada, notes VSO School of Music CEO Angela Elster. So to add yet another layer to the project, the school engaged in a unique collaboration with Arts Umbrella in which their students created original compositions and visual art, guided by Riopelle’s legacy.
“The more we thought about it, the more we thought that Arts Umbrella and the VSO School of Music have, at their core, this firm philosophical underpinning that we are wanting to support the next generation of music lovers and art lovers, and a society that is impacted by the power of arts,” she observes. “Where’s the best part, the best place, the best space to begin with youth to introduce them to the innovation and iconic profile of this Canadian artist, who’s not so well known in Western Canada? And so, it became a teaching unit for Arts Umbrella and a teaching unit for the VSO School of Music, inspired by the work of Jean Paul Riopelle.”
The results of those student engagements will be shared with the public in the Orpheum lobby, with VSO School of Music students playing their Riopelle-inspired works in a prelude performance starting at 7 pm. In addition, says Elster, Riopelle-inspired pieces by participants in the VSO School of Music’s Youth Empowerment program, a partnership with Covenant House for unhoused youth and youth-at-risk, will also be broadcast for the audience.
“It’s a definite immersion, isn’t it?” she remarks of the experience awaiting audiences on April 20. “And it’s at every level. The screen above the musicians of the VSO will be showcasing the work of Jean Paul Riopelle, but in the lobby we will find the new generation of Jean Paul Riopelles, and the new generation of music composers who are inspired.”
Orchestra, choir, projections, fashion, education—it’s an almost dizzying array of elements, all coming together for one night. “Anytime you add more and more forces and more and more elements to something, there are more challenges,” admits Johnson. “But there’s also more and more payoff as you get through those challenges…I love doing this sort of thing. It’s really, really powerful.” 
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